BOYS BASKETBALL: Title-hungry Pirates hold off shorthanded Venice

“If they want to win a championship, they have to close out games,” Pirates coach Kip Rhoten said of his sophomore-heavy squad. “That’s what we talked about. We had some games in December where we had a 10-, 11-point lead and we let it get away from us.

“So, to hang on to it, even though it wasn’t pretty, they found a way to hang on to it.”

Venice junior Deylen Platt (team-high 14 points) opened the fourth quarter with a pair of layups that shrunk the Port Charlotte lead to 46-39, but the Pirates had an answer for every Indians’ run.

Pirates senior Bode Stewart immediately responded with a 3-pointer that kickstarted a back-and-forth that lasted throughout the quarter.

Freshman Dallas Lambert, junior Roland Federick and sophomore Jah Chin each added to Stewart’s scoring efforts in the fourth — making it nearly impossible for a short-handed Venice team to catch up.

The Indians (10-10) opened the game without Platt for the first quarter and without senior center Keegan Burroughs and junior guard Griffin Moricz for the entire game.

Moricz was serving the second game of a two-game suspension from a double technical and Burroughs is no longer with the team, according to Davis, who declined to provide further comment.

“At the end of the year you don’t want things like that to happen, but this is high school basketball,” Venice coach Luke Davis said. “You might show up and somebody’s not at school or somebody’s hurt and you just have to work with it.”

Playing with an adjusted rotation, it took Venice close to five minutes before it got going thanks to a pair of 3-pointers by senior guard Pat Colas.

The Indians came as close to the lead as they would all night when junior guard Chad Fleming scored to cut it to a 14-13 Pirates’ advantage.

Then Port Charlotte turned to its fresh legs.

Boasting a second unit that includes a half-dozen underclassmen all hungry for more opportunities, the Pirates went on a 17-7 run to close out the quarter, taking a 31-20 lead into halftime.

In that run, Port Charlotte scored with sophomore Landon Lefresne, freshman Mikael Santa, sophomore Mussa Fullen and junior Brennan Ingle, along with a late charge from the starting unit.

“We have so many sophomores. I’ve got like seven sophomores,” Rhoten said. “So you start two or three, or whatever. I’ve got my two big seniors (Stewart and Campos) down low.

“My whole bench is sophomores and freshmen. So when we’re practicing, they all kinda flow in there together. Every one has a certain skill set.”

Venice junior guard Josh Chaviano kept the Indians alive in the third quarter, scoring nine points to help keep the lead within reach.

“I thought, ‘Hey, there’s a chance they could blow the top off of this,’” Davis said. “But I’m really proud that we just kept fighting and eating away at it.”

Port Charlotte spread the wealth in the win.

Campos scored 13 points and nabbed 10 rebounds. Stewart added 11 and six. Chin scored 10, half of which came in the closing minutes.

“I was telling them just a little bit ago before the game, ‘As coaches, you get 12 boys or 13 boys, whatever, to represent your school,” Rhoten said. “Well, here we are now with basically a week to go before the district tournament and I’ve got 12 boys who come in and work hard every day and they like each other.

“And it starts to show.”